This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Why is Wayne mum on Tocchet?

Wayne Gretzky assumed the familiar position at the Air Canada Centre yesterday, his feet tucked into a pair of skates, his hands wrapped around a hockey stick, a semicircle of mics and TV lights surrounding him. But something wasn't right.

Wayne Gretzky assumed the familiar position at the Air Canada Centre yesterday, his feet tucked into a pair of skates, his hands wrapped around a hockey stick, a semicircle of mics and TV lights surrounding him. But something wasn't right.

His hockey gloves, upon close inspection, were custom-stitched with a name most un-Polish. They were labelled TOCCHET, as in Rick Tocchet, Gretzky's exiled assistant coach with the Phoenix Coyotes, who is on probation and indefinite leave from the NHL after pleading guilty in May to criminal charges relating to his role in running an illegal sports-betting ring. Was Gretzky keeping the mitts warm for the old bookie – er, his old buddy?

"I didn't have any gloves and that's all they had in stock," he said, "so I grabbed 'em."

He let out a laugh and flashed a toothy grin, a neat little deke around the prospect of talking Tocchet. The stickhandling got a little less deft as the Tocchet-related questions kept coming yesterday, all of them courtesy of the thick-skulled proprietor of this space.

Before you press send on that up-yours email, allow me to acknowledge the possibility that I was an idiot for asking an iconic Canadian to explain himself, to offer his thoughts on how Tocchet got the world of illegal sports gambling tangled up with the good Gretzky name and the good of the game.

He's given us a rewritten record book and a handful of Stanley Cups and a raft of YouTube highlights that are gorgeous odes to a once-in-a-century physical genius. If he never lifts another finger for the sport, he's done his bit.

And let's be clear: Nobody has ever accused anyone named Gretzky of any criminal wrongdoing in the Tocchet case. Still, this slow wit was under the impression Gretzky was more than one of the greatest athletes of his generation, more than an endorser of trucks and pop and fast food. They said so in the House of freaking Commons in the days after he retired as a player: "Wayne Gretzky was and is the finest ambassador for the sport for all time."

So why does the finest ambassador for the sport for all-time turn into the Great Mute when he's asked a question about Tocchet's illegal dealings? All he has said is that he can't wait for Tocchet to come back to the Phoenix bench. He has yet to utter a public comment, other than no comment, about what Tocchet did, and what it all means to the game.

"I'm not going to today, either," he said yesterday.

Why not?

"There's no reason to," he said. "It's not my responsibility."

Again, allow me to self-flagellate to save you the emailed hate. There is every possibility that a grandstanding jerkwad who isn't fit to carry Gretzky's toiletries kit was wasting everybody's time stirring up dung yesterday. And yes, we all hope wonderful old Walter doesn't read this nonsense about his son.

Still, there are questions for Gretzky this corner wasn't nearly smooth enough to stammer yesterday, and they'll linger. Did Gretzky know Tocchet was co-running an illegal gambling operation? If he did, he deserves to be punished – or maybe he would deserve to be punished if he was coaching in one of those credible leagues in which, for very good reasons, associating with known gamblers is a no-no. And if he didn't know, how could he have been so blind and deaf to it? Until we hear answers from Gretzky's mouth, is there nobody else who might entertain the idea that the game's finest ambassador, in this sad instance, is a disappointment to the sport that gave him everything?

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com